Howard University Digital Howard @ Howard University Manuscript Division Finding Aids 10-1-2015 WRIGHT, Richard Robert MSRC Staff Follow this and additional works at: http://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu Recommended Citation Staff, MSRC, "WRIGHT, Richard Robert" (2015). Manuscript Division. Paper 219. http://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu/219 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Finding Aids at Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Manuscript Division by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact lopez.matthews@howard.edu.
Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr. Family Papers and National Freedom Day Collection SCOPE NOTE The papers of the Major R.R. Wright, Sr. Family comprise 1.5 linear ft. They consist of photographs, clippings, and reports of Major Wright's business ventures, including the Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust Company and the Haitian Coffee and Products Trading Company. Of particular interest is the documentation surrounding the 1939 Goodwill Flight to Haiti, as well as a recording titled "Tell Them We Are Rising," a biography of Major R.R. Wright, Sr. Also included are photographs and various items documenting the achievements and contributions of several prominent members of his family, including his sons, Bishop R.R. Wright, Jr. and E.C. Wright. There are books in the collection written by and about the Wright family. Eighty-Seven Years behind the Black Curtain (1965) by R.R. Wright, Jr. is a compelling account of his life as a banker, Wilberforce University president, and official of the A.M.E. church. The Records of the National Freedom Day Association comprise 10 linear ft. One of the largest components of the collection consists of proclamations received from more than 40 states and the city of Philadelphia over a period of 35 years Printed programs from annual celebrations, spanning the period 1942 to 1993, represent another significant component. The photographs are the highlight of the collection. Spanning the years 1942 to 1986, they illustrate the various National Freedom Day activities, and serve to underline the significance of the day by the important personages who are depicted. For example, in 1945, some Tuskegee Airmen are pictured receiving an award; in 1949, Eleanor Roosevelt is pictured with E.C. Wright; Coretta Scott King is seen speaking at the 1957 event. There are also photos of Martin Luther King, Jr., Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Jersey Joe Walcott, Joe Louis, Elder Lightfoot Michaux, Benjamin Mays, Father Divine, Julian Bond and many others. The collection was donated in 1977 by E.C. Wright. MAJOR RICHARD R. WRIGHT, SR. Richard Robert Wright, Sr. [1855?-1947], educator, businessman and activist, was born a slave on a plantation near Dalton, Georgia. After the end of the Civil War, his mother, Harriet Wright, sent him to the Storrs School, a school for Blacks in Atlanta operated by the American Missionary Association. In 1876 he earned his B.A. from Atlanta University, and was the valedictorian of the university's first graduating class. He became a university trustee in 1887 and remained on the board until 1929. After graduation he was selected principal of a local school and began his life-long work as a community organizer. He published a newspaper; founded and became the first president of the black Georgia State Teachers' Association; and became the first president of the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth in Savannah (now Savannah State College).in 1891. Also active in politics, Wright was named delegate to the National Republican Convention for presidential elections eight times between 1880 and 1916. When McKinley was elected president in 1896, Wright was offered the position of minister to Liberia. He accepted the post of special paymaster and the rank of major in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War. In 1921 he left Georgia State Industrial College and moved to Philadelphia, where he opened the Citizens and Southern Bank. He also founded and became president of the National Negro Bankers' Association. Citizens and Southern was one of the few banks that remained solvent during the Great Depression. Seeking to expand his business horizons, Wright in 1935 organized the Haitian Coffee and Products Trading Company. He helped obtain an appropriation of $250,000 for the Semi-Centennial Emancipation Exhibition in 1913, and lobbied persistently for the issuance of a Booker T. Washington postage stamp. This occurred in 1940, and was the first postage stamp to depict an African American. Major R.R. Wright, Sr. died July 2, 1947, in Philadelphia. NATIONAL FREEDOM DAY National Freedom Day as conceived by Major Richard R. Wright, Sr. is an observance and celebration of the day, February 1, 1865, on which Abraham Lincoln signed the joint resolution adopted by the Senate and the House of Representatives that proposed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery in all the states and territories of the U.S. (While the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln had freed slaves in much of the U.S., it had not addressed slavery in the non-seceding states). On February 1, 1941, Major Wright invited national and local leaders to meet in Philadelphia to propose a plan to set aside February 1st of each year to commemorate the signing of that seminal document. One year after his death in 1947, President Harry Truman signed the bill proclaiming February 1st as National Freedom Day. In subsequent years, 40 governors and all mayors of Philadelphia have issued proclamations designating February 1st as National Freedom Day in their respective jurisdictions. The purpose of the annual observance is to rededicate the nation to the ideal of
freedom. In the words of Major R.R. Wright, Sr: "The National Freedom Day Celebration will strive to promote goodwill and harmonious cooperation among all citizens of our land. Our eagerness for National Freedom should warrant equal opportunity to all citizens. The protagonists for human freedom and program as represented herein regard their duty to promote the cause of national citizenship, fair play, peace, and happiness as dynamic and not static. Our purpose is to constantly and forcibly bring to the attention of the nation this objective. We have organized to celebrate annually National Freedom Day, February 1, on the anniversary of the adoption of the 13th Amendment to our Constitution, guaranteeing the enjoyment of equal freedom to all men." Major R.R. Wright, Sr. President, National Freedom Day Association 1943 Container Listing R. R. Wright, Sr. Personal Papers Obituary Memorial Calendar Correspondence, Booker T. Washington, 1899, 1904-1906 Articles about Wright, n.d., 1926, 1944, 1970 Programs 1914 16th Annual Farmers' Conference, Ga. State Industrial College 1933 70th Anniversary Celebration of Negro Progress 1934 71st Anniversary Celebration of Emancipation Proclamation 1939 Mass meeting, "How Can We Increase Business among Colored People?", Philadelphia Clippings about Wright Calendar Wright Family Papers Mrs. R.R. Wright (wife) - Calling Card Edwina Matilda Mitchell (daughter)- Funeral Program, Scholarship Brochure, Preliminary Inventory for the papers of Joseph E. Mitchell at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center Emanuel Crogman Wright (son) Funeral Program and Obituary, 1983 Bio-sketches Correspondence Speeches and writings by E.C. Wright Clippings about E.C. Wright, 1948, 1968, n.d. Certificates and Awards 1950, 1952, 1962, 1980-1981 Programs World Emancipation Exposition (see also Oversize) Charter Agreement Advertisements Brochure Color Me Brown Pageant Clippings, 1964 Correspondence, 1964-1965 Fact Sheet and Personnel List Programs and Invitation Century Mark Association of America Harriet Wright Hines (daughter) - Funeral Program and Obituary, 1990 Julia Ophelia Wright (daughter)- Obituary, 1961 Lillian Wright Clayton (daughter)- Funeral Program, 1967 Richard Robert Wright, Jr. (son) - Article, Funeral Program, 1967, n.d. Whittier Howard Wright (son)- Funeral Program, 1976 Chambers Cassius Clayton (brother-in-law)- Funeral Program, 1959 Ashley A. Hines (son-in-law)- Funeral Program, 1975
Joseph Everett Mitchell (son-in-law)- Funeral Program, 1952 Dorothy Wright (daughter-in-law)- Clipping, 1986 Sympathy Cards Greeting Cards and Letter, 1991-1992, n.d. Wright Family Reunion Booklet Organizations Citizens and Southern Bank Clippings, 1922. 1931. 1933, 1947, 1952, 1956-1957 Programs, 1930, 1945 Statement of Condition, 1922, 1951-1952 Report, 1928 Haitian Coffee and Products Trading Company Advertisements Clippings Goodwill Flight Clippings, 1939, n.d. Flight Log, 1939 Letter (E.C. Wright), 1939 Proclamation (?) in Spanish, 1939 Programs, 1939 Speech (In Spanish), Baylleres R. Lovio National Bank Association Clippings, 1980, n.d. Programs, 1931, 1948 Photographs R.R. Wright, Sr. (see also Oversize and NFD photographs) R.R. Wright, Sr. and family Log Cabin of R.R. Wright, Sr.'s birth Mrs. R. R. Wright, Sr. (see also Oversize) Edwina Wright Mitchell E.C. Wright (2 folders) (see also Oversize and NFD photographs) Crogman, W.H. Citizens & Southern Bank (7 folders) Goodwill Flight World Emancipation Exposition Opportunities, Inc. YWCA Pan Hellenic Council, 1936 Books by and about the Wright Family The Black Boy of Atlanta by Elizabeth Ross Haynes The Negro in Pennsylvania by R.R. Wright, Jr. Eighty-Seven Years behind the Black Curtain by R.R. Wright, Jr. The Teachings of Jesus by R.R. Wright, Jr. The Crusading Black Journalist by Joseph Everett Wright Beneath The Southern Cross by Charlotte Crogman Wright Writings about Others Chipman, Charles H. Leonard, Walter J. Wilson, Wade (Scholarship Fund) Recordings "Tell Them We Are Rising": A Biography of: Major Richard Robert Wright (6 copies) "Adventures in Negro History: The Douglass Years", Vol. II
"The Crowning Experience," Moral Re-Armament "Something Within/Wings Overhead" "Liberty Bell" (2 records) Rabbi Finescriber (3 records) Dr. Rayford Logan, Freedom Day, 1951 Untitled (5 records) Films "Dr. J. W. Bundrumt, Great Barrington", 16 mm, color, picture only, n.d. [1960s or 1907s] Container Listing National Freedom Day Proclamations 1958 State of Michigan 1960 State of Nevada 1961 State of Missouri 1966 State of Colorado State of Minnesota State of Nebraska 1967 State of Rhode Island 1968 State of Connecticut State of Florida State of Indiana State of Maryland State of Nebraska State of Nevada State of New Hampshire State of New Mexico State of Vermont 1969 State of Alaska State of Missouri 1970 State of Florida 1971 * State of Kentucky State of Missouri State of Rhode Island* 1972
State of Delaware State of Nebraska State of Ohio State of South Carolina 1973 State of Arkansas State of Colorado State of Florida State of Georgia State of Maryland State of New York State of West Virginia 1974 State of Nebraska State of Ohio State of Vermont 1975 State of Colorado State of Connecticut State of Florida State of Michigan State of New Mexico 1976 1977 State of Michigan State of New Hampshire State of New Mexico State of Oklahoma 1978
Puerto Rico 1980 State of Louisiana 1982 State of Arkansas State of Connecticut State of Louisiana State of Massachusetts State of Minnesota State of New Hampshire State of New York State of Rhode Island State of Texas State of West Virginia 1983 State of California State of Connecticut State of Georgia State of Louisiana State of New Mexico State of New York State of Rhode Island State of Texas State of West Virginia 1984 State of Alabama State of Delaware State of Georgia State of New Mexico State of New York State of Ohio State of Rhode Island
State of Texas State of West Virginia Puerto Rico 1985 State of California State of Louisiana State of Nebraska State of New York State of South Dakota State of Texas letter only Dated Photographs 1942 1944 1945 - William L. Dawson - Tuskegee Airmen, Col. Herbert - Carter, et al. 1946 1947 1948 - President Harry S. Truman 1949 - - Eleanor Roosevelt, et al. 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1957 - Coretta Scott King 1960 1962 1963 1964 1966 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 - Walter Fauntroy 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983
1984 1985 1986 Undated Identified Photographs Julian Bond, et al. Father Divine, R.R. Wright, Sr., et al. W.C. Handy Judge William Hastie Joe Louis, R.R. Wright, Sr., et al. Martin Luther King, Jr., John W. Davis, Benjamin E. Mays, et al. Benjamin E. Mays, et al. Elder Lightfoot Michaux, et al. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., et al. Jersey Joe Walcott and E. C. Wright Franklin H. Williams Michael R. Winston NFD Archives Installation at Howard University NFD Award presentations NFD Women's Committee R.R. Wright Public School Youth Choir Undated Photographs of NFD Events and Individuals National Freedom Day Events (21 folders) Individual Participants (3 folders) Programs (includes invitations/fliers for selected years) 1942 1950 1961 1970 1980 1990 1943 1951 1962 1971 1981 1991 1944 1952 1963 1972 1982 1992 1945 1953 1964 1973 1983 1993 1946 1954 1965 1974 1984 1947 1955 1966 1975 1985 1948 1956 1967 1976 1986 1949 1957 1968 1977 1987 1958 1969 1978 1988 1959 1979 1989 Speeches and Writings 1968 P. Jay Sidney 1978 Michael R. Winston James G. Spady, "Tell Them We're Rising" Excerpts from Significant NFD Addresses, 1941-1985 Background information on selected NFD speakers National Freedom Day Association Records Constitution and By-Laws Correspondence History - NFD NFD Bill, 1948 Newsclippings Minutes, 1969, 1989 Writings about NFD, 1969 Edwina Wright Mitchell Memorial Scholarship Rules for scholarship contest, 1952 List of Board of Directors, 1983 List of Executive Committee
Certificate of Membership Button Council against Communist Aggression Other Ephemera (Oversize Items) Mounted newsclippings of NFD events, Wright family obituaries Wright Family Photographs Elks pictorial supplement (Quaker City #720) in The Philadelphia Tribune, 1929 Audiocassettes Freedom Day Program, 1986 Freedom Day Program, 1987